2/05/2010

Are the people going to accept this Medisave increase quietly?

A week of silence after Boon Wan sounded the idea of raising Medisave contributions and finally I read a letter in the Today forum by a Alex Chan. Chan was concerned that the increase will hurt the young home owners as HDB has already targeted 30% of their income for its flats. These home owners have already budgeted what they could afford to pay for housing to the max. Anymore design on their CPF will mean touching on their disposable income or for those still waiting to buy a flat to revise downwards and look for a smaller unit. But surprisingly not many complain letters were sent to the ST forum. Maybe there is no problem really and Alex Chan's concern is misplaced.
So far from the govt side, only Halimah Yaacob raised some concerns that it will affect the workers if this thing is pushed through. She is the only voice against the increase. So what about the rest of the MPs? Are there still studying the proposal and getting feedback from the people? It will be good to know which MP is for or against this proposal. It will also be good to know how they vote after they have expressed their views in Parliament.
I am deeply concern about this raising of Medisave contributions and locking up more of the people's money. It seems that the govt is bend on holding on to the people's money for as much as they can lay their hands on and for as long as possible. This is the message I am getting. Is the govt so hard up of money? Obviously no. GIC and Temasek are still globe trotting around looking for good buys and absorbing whatever losses in their stride. Still, the people will have their ways of looking at these monetary measures as a way of snatching their money from them and will have many negative thoughts and feelings. And to some it is not just feelings but very painful.
I would like to suggest that Boon Wan make it more painful by raising another 5%. A big pain for once instead of creeping pains every other year. This is textbook Machiavellian strategy. Or is it to make it less painful like raising property taxes every now and then instead of all at one go?
Looks like I am going to here for a while and I will just go on posting.

4 comments:

Anonymous
said...

Redbean, in early June 09Singaporeans received a small one-time property tax rebate and that was somewhat of a surprise.

But the biggest surprise was that immediately following that they raised the annual value of HDB properties and Singaporeans ended up paying more than the one-time rebate for 2010. How's that for a fair exchange of a little candy for a lifetime of paying back.

I guess this is the style of this Government. Giving citizens a chicken drumstick, taking back one whole chicken.

We are caught in this high salary and high property price merry go round. The merry go round cannot stop and must keep spinning faster and faster. Of course you know that the centrifugal force will one day cause it to snap.

On the other hand the salary of the worker cannot go up or else all the biz will run away. See how daft is this merry go round?

In all my postings, one of my key principles is to avoid tarnishing anyone personally, and the least for indiscretion in their private live...

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